One of the many obstacles to Meditation concocted by our mind is the idea that we can’t meditate if we are in a noisy environment. We think of noise as a distraction to Meditation and an interruption of our attempts at concentration. Sometimes our mind will even use the noise it perceives as an excuse not to meditate...
When we are overwhelmed by stimulation, agitation and sounds, we tend to crave stillness as a means to recover our inner calm. We believe that if the surroundings were less chaotic, we would more easily find our balance again. That is where our mind and senses are playing tricks on us. We believe that stillness will be there when the turbulences have subsided. In reality, we can be in a place where there are no sounds at all and yet we find no peace. We can sit in the most majestic and silent mountain setting, but if our mind is agitated, then the jumble of our thoughts can create more noise than a jackhammer outside our home.
Stillness has in fact nothing to do with the presence or absence of noise. Stillness is a dimension of being that is beyond the mind’s agitation and the noise of the world. Stillness is the fabric of the Source out of which sound appears in the first place. In other words: before sound comes into existence, before thought or form come into existence, the Space of Stillness is there. It is unchanging and ever-present, always at the back of everything we are and experience as human beings.
So we don’t have to control our environment, or create a sound vacuum to experience true Stillness. All we need to do is close our eyes and watch. At first we will perceive all the sounds around us and all the thoughts in our head. Instead of analysing them, commenting on them or lamenting their presence, we can tune in to that in us which is capable of perceiving both sounds and thought. When we develop the ability to stay established as that free Watcher, we realise that the sounds and thoughts come and go within the space of Stillness - as we watch them appear and disappear, the Stillness at the back of the movement remains unchanged, unaffected and uninvolved.
This is the Stillness we are longing for. We just have been looking for it in the wrong place. We have tried to tame our surroundings into Stillness, when it has been living inside of us all along. All we need to do is recognise it, tune in to it and cultivate it, so that we can remember and know its presence at all times.
Are you looking for guidance to remember the Stillness in you? E-mail Sampriya for a free half hour consult of Online Meditation Mentoring to find out how she can help you. More information can be found on our website regarding Meditation Mentoring, Online Meditation Classes or Online Satsang.